Hot Dogs, Global Emissions, and Google

A leading physicians group warns that hot dogs are a choking hazard for children.

Trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati comes out in support of a World Trade Organization model to control global carbon emissions through dispute settlement.

Google is facing an anti-monopoly probe by the European Commission.

1. REGULATION

A leading physicians group warns that hot dogs are a choking hazard for children.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Warren Brookes Fellow Ryan Young on why hot dogs do not pose a significant risk.

“According to WebMD, 66 to 77 children under 10 die every year from choking on food in the U.S. That’s out of more than 42,000,000 children under 10, according to my calculations from U.S. Census data. That means your child’s odds of choking to death on food are about 1 in 545,000.”

2. ENVIRONMENT

Trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati comes out in support of a World Trade Organization model to control global carbon emissions through dispute settlement.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on why this is a bad idea.

“Just imagine the can of worms this would open up in the carbon emissions area.  Would the dispute-settlement body have the right to dictate how the offending country’s laws and policies should be changed?”

3. BUSINESS

Google is facing an anti-monopoly probe by the European Commission.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on why attempts to break up monopolies actually hurt competition.

“Basically, antitrust is about dismantling what others have created or hope to create, undermining large scale voluntarism and enterprise, and replacing it with even larger scale compulsion or prohibition. The (not ‘unintended,’ as often claimed) result of which is to send the ‘free’ market careening off into a direction it never would have taken, a direction in defiance of shareholder capitalism and market pressures.”